Tranquility and Joy through Nature's Beauty and Light. Starlisa's Fine Art Photography of the Pacific Northwest

Category Archives: teaching stories

One day at a time…. onwards and upwards… and this is a good day full of beauty! If your head is hanging down and you are sitting in a dark room feeling down, step outside in the sun or rain, and take a deeeeeeep breath in, look up and around, study the spring signs popping out all over the place, and remind yourself whatever the problem is, does not have to consume you. You have a choice, you can embrace each little moment of beauty and it can help turn things around for you. I know this to be true from many ups and downs in this life.

This is a very emotionally charged subject for so many people. I have many well loved friends and family who are gay or lesbian, openly or in the closet so to speak. I also have many friends and maybe some family who are very close minded on the subject and feel very strongly against it. This has caused so much heartbreak and division for so many that I know. I grew up in the LDS church (The original one by the way, based in Salt Lake, not one of the reformed versions of the LDS Church). During a lot of adventurous crazy years of my life I left the church behind and explored many versions of spirituality. Back in 2000, after a great deal of heartbreak, I moved back home to help my mother and came back to the church. I found it comforting again. That rekindled faith was given a blow last year when the church announced its new policy regarding children of gay couples. I felt so divided. I had family on both sides of this issue hammering in my ear and splitting me into little shards in my mind. It broke my heart. I just always want people to love one another and get along and I get so stressed when they don’t. I never have been able to handle people arguing and fighting around me. Over the last year I have found more peace and feel comforted by the teachings from the Scriptures. I also feel comforted by the peace and beauty in nature. To me standing under the Aurora for example is a spiritual experience. I am filled with Awe and Gratefulness at such times.

I’ve seldom publicly defined myself as specifically a Christian, or for that matter a pagan, a Buddhist, a Sufi, or Native American church member. And yet I’ve been a part of all of those at different points in my life and have learned so much along the way. These Faiths are all a part of who I am. I simply love people and I love spirit. I have felt loved ones leave their body behind with the rush of joy at the end of lives both short and long. I have seen them later, in far too brief visits from the spirit world, sharing that joy with me. I feel the spirit within nature around me, in every living thing including the oceans, rocks and mountains.
So what, do you ask, does this all have to do with gays and lesbians? I myself find it interesting that I wandered this way from that subject.

I see it as a baby step in a positive direction allowing the beginning of communication and shared stories on the subject that have been so painful for so many. There are no easy fixes or quick answers, and hearing the stories from people’s experiences can teach us a lot about how we interact. This all comes back around to seeing the beauty in others, and loving one another from the heart and the way that Christ and Buddha and others have loved others. Agape. The love a parent has for a child, the love that is not tied by bonds of need or sexuality. Pure Compassion, with no judgment. None of us has room to judge another. We do not know the steps another person walks unless we walk in those footprints ourselves.

“Laws as such do not make people better” said Nasrudin to the King. “They must practice certain things in order to become attuned to inner truth. This form of truth resembles apparent truth only slightly.”

The King decided he could, and would, make people observe the truth. He could make them practice truthfulness.

His city was entered by a bridge. On this he built a gallows. The following day, when the gates were opened at dawn, The Captain of the Guard was stationed with a squad of troops to examine all who entered.

An announcement was made: “Everyone will be questioned. If he tells the truth, he will be allowed to enter. If he lies, he will be hanged.”

Nasrudin stepped forward.

“Where are you going?”

“I am on my way,” said Nasrudin slowly, “to be hanged.”

“We don’t believe you!”

“Very well, if I have told a lie, then hang me!”

“But if we hang you for lying, then we will have made what you said come true!”

“That’s right; now you know what the truth is…YOUR truth!”

A passage from the third Idries Shal collection, The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin; (p.7)

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